Editor's Notebook: Pittman should seek a permanent health officer; Schuh's influence remains on the school board

Former Health Officer Frances Phillips returned in 2017 to temporarily lead the agency she headed for almost 20 years. She left in August. (Joshua McKerrow / Capital Gazette file)

If it hasn’t happened already, Anne Arundel County will soon set a new annual record in fatal overdoses linked to opioid abuse.

That means a top priority for county executive-elect Steuart Pittman should be assembling a team that will lead his response to this deadly public health crisis.

Advertisement

Pittman has yet to say whether he will keep police Chief Tim Altomare and fire Chief Allan Graves on the job. Both have been leaders in the county response to addiction and overdose numbers and either would be an asset to the new administration.

And he appears to agree on an overall strategy with state’s attorney elect-Anne Colt Leitess, focusing on education and treatment, despite some of her campaign criticism of the outgoing state’s attorney’s similar approach.

But Pittman would be well-served on this issue by working quickly with state authorities to name perhaps the most important partner he will have on this topic: a permanent county health officer.

A leadership void has existed at the county Health Department since Jinlene Chan left for a state position in 2017, although questions over the direction of the department have existed longer.

Fran Philips, the highly respected former health officer from 1993 to 2008, served in an acting capacity after Chan’s departure. Her exit in August was followed by the sudden resignation of Dr. David Rose, public health director since 2013 and considered by some as a possible candidate for the top job.

Added to all this are lingering questions over county Health Officer Angela Wakhweya in 2013. Although the County Council voted to remove her, it did so with little understanding and mostly at the behest of the state Department of Health.

This job is a joint county-state agency, with funding and lines of responsibility to both levels of government. It’s not Pittman’s job to fill. But he could influence the choice through a strange coincidence, he lives in the same community as the man who is responsible for the appointment: state Health Secretary Bob Neall.

The former county executive and Pittman both call Davidsonville home. Neall should be sympathetic to an executive’s need for have someone at the Truman Parkway Health Department offices who is headed in the same direction.

We can’t help but note that one of Steve Schuh’s most lasting impacts as county executive might be on the Board of Education for Anne Arundel County.

Monday night, the School Board Appointment Commission voted for a former member of Schuh’s administration to fill the school board’s empty District 30 seat.

Bob Leib, a Harwood resident and Naval Academy alum, worked on military and veterans issues for Schuh and former county executive John Leopold.

He will join Michele Corkadel on the board. She won a seat in the first wave of board members chosen by election rather than appointment. A community liaison in the county office of constituent services under Schuh, she could find herself on the outs as part of the transition to a new administration.

Other members of the board were supported by Schuh in their bids for board seats. It will be worth watching to see how his education philosophy — smaller schools and gradual salary and funding increases — will influence the board going forward.